AT THE DIAMOND BAR 181 



last "good night" said, as we walked campward up 

 the creek, we could not quite adjust ourselves to the 

 situation. We looked curiously, now and again, at 

 Horace. He strode along vigorously, proudly, head 

 in air, rapt and still intoxicated by the luxury of 

 self expression and the incense of unstinted admira- 

 tion. 



Each one of us was silent, busy with his own 

 thoughts. Horace's mood remained undesecrated, 

 his triumph and his happiness complete, without a 

 flaw. 



The next day, Sunday, Horace was still under the 

 spell of the events of the preceding night. His ela- 

 tion had not perceptibly ebbed. He was in far bet- 

 ter conceit with himself than we had been used to 

 seeing him of late. We wondered whether it might 

 not become necessary to tone him down a little be- 

 fore he could be trusted to work to advantage. But 

 as it happened, fate spared us that task. 



Most of us had washing to do, that morning, so 

 we walked down the creek about a half mile to where 

 we might precede the laundry work by a swim. The 

 water was ice-cold and no one stayed in very long. 

 Horace, a good swimmer, was the last to acknowl- 

 edge its chilling effect. He even ventured on some 

 mild "horsing," as one by one we others, blue lipped 

 and shaking, sought the bank and hastily donned our 

 clothes. 



We were nearly dressed and Horace, for our de- 

 lectation, was demonstrating the "crawl" in about 



